1917 VFL season

1917 VFL Premiership season
Teams	6
Premiers	Collingwood (4th premiership)
Minor premiers	Collingwood (5th minor premiership)
Matches played	49
Highest attendance	28,512
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Dick Lee (Collingwood)
← 1916 1918 →

The 1917 Victorian Football League season was the 21st season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1917, the VFL competition consisted of six teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their place on the field at any time during the match.

Each of the six teams played each other three times in a 15 match home-and-away season (Geelong, Richmond, and South Melbourne each hosting eight games, while Carlton, Collingwood, and Fitzroy each hosted seven).

Once the 15 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1917 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Finals

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Ladder

1917 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Collingwood (P)	15	10	4	1	1030	772	133.42	42
2	Carlton	15	9	5	1	843	724	116.44	38
3	South Melbourne	15	9	6	0	911	772	118.01	36
4	Fitzroy	15	6	8	1	832	963	86.40	26
5	Geelong	15	6	9	0	735	927	79.29	24
6	Richmond	15	3	11	1	761	954	79.77	14
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Awards

• The 1917 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Dick Lee of Collingwood with 50 goals (54 after finals).
• Richmond took the "wooden spoon" in 1917.

Notable events

• Geelong and South Melbourne, having refused to compete in 1916 on "patriotic grounds" returned to the VFL competition, having concluded that the drop in the number of recruits in 1916 indicated that the VFL competition had no effect on military recruitment. The Geelong team members met their own expenses and played as amateurs, with the club donating all of its 1918 profits to war funds.
• On 12 May 1917, recruiting officers visiting VFL grounds were heckled by spectators.^[1] On another occasion a Fitzroy crowd attacked a recruiting sergeant.^[1]
• On 4 August, the entire thirteenth round was put back a week, at the request of the State War Council, so that recruiting meetings could be held at each VFL ground.

References

1. Ross, John (1996). 100 Years of Australian Football. Ringwood, Australia: Viking Books. p. 382. ISBN 9781854714343.

• Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897-1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN 0-670-90809-6

External links

• 1917 Season - AFL Tables